Opinion

If you want to understand why the tax code is so hard to overhaul, consider the case of the mortgage interest deduction. The issue is so sensitive that the House and Senate are dealing with it in completely opposite ways. To its many defenders and beneficiaries, the mortgage interest deduction symbolizes and subsidizes the American Dream. It promotes homeownership, which …

On the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s election win, markets in Asia are behaving like the US president’s rhetoric is just background noise. At first, there were knee-jerk reactions. Japan’s Topix Index slumped 4.6 percent on Nov. 9 as investors digested the news while credit-default swaps protecting Indonesian government debt against default rose 26 basis points that week, the most …

If soon-to-be CEO Michelle Gass needed any reminder of what a tough job she is stepping into at Kohl’s Corp., the department-store chain’s latest earnings report surely provided one. Kohl’s said its same-store sales rose a meager 0.1 percent compared to a year earlier. The company said its traffic trends continued to improve — but just because footfall is better …

Ever since the financial crisis we’ve become accustomed to the idea that whatever governments fail to do, central banks can always come to the rescue. If you need a reminder of why this statement is wrong, look no further than the Bank of England (BOE). Much like other monetary authorities in the rich world, the BOE has been the main …

Almost exactly one year ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on national television to announce that, in a few hours, existing Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes would no longer be legal tender. This came as a complete shock to most; the weeks and months that followed featured long queues at bank tellers as hapless Indians tried to exchange old notes for …

So China would like a bit of foreign expertise after all. In a surprise move, and timed with US President Donald Trump’s state visit, China said it would scrap foreign ownership limits for banks and asset management firms. Asia’s biggest economy has been talking about opening its banking industry for a while now. Foreigners are already movers and shakers in …

How should we think about new and future technologies? The two main stances seem to be extreme optimism and extreme pessimism. A better approach would be careful planning and management. Optimists like to point out that technology has been the greatest force for human welfare in the history of the species. They’re right. Before the Industrial Revolution, societies like the …

What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive ourselves into believing that corporate welfare can be seemly. Consider the caper, both amusing and depressing, that began when mighty Boeing sought protection behind the skirts of the US Department of Commerce. Boeing, America’s 39th largest corporation by market capitalisation (over $150 billion) and 24th by revenues ($94.6 …

Chinese investors are piling into Hong Kong stocks again, but they’re being choosy, treating two peas from the same pod in different ways. Mainland investors have snapped up some $2.5 billion of shares in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. over the past two weeks, Shanghai-Hong Kong connect data show, helping to push the lender’s stock in the city …

Soon after Equifax Inc. disclosed in early September that a data breach had exposed the private financial information of 145 million Americans, some advocated that the credit-reporting agency be shut down. At the very least, many thought, it would suffer some financial repercussions. Instead, Equifax reported its second-best quarter ever based on sales and its preferred measure of profits. In …